A recent public engagement effort on the Log Train Trail left me thinking about decisions the ACRD has made regarding Off Road Vehicles (ORVs) on the Log Train Trail.

The ACRD Board has adopted a Management Plan that says that traffic by ORVs is around 50%, more than by all other uses combined. I’m not at all surprized. These vehicles and their reputation have figuratively driven many hikers off this trail. And now you’ll see even fewer of them. Hikers, cyclists, and horseback riders are incompatible with ORVs. They were saying that 40 years ago in my forest recreation class at university! Yet hear we are!

Some of the ACRD’s portion of the trail must remain ORV-free. That wasn’t an option in the consultant’s management plan. Did the Board have the imagination to consider this?

To me, the ACRD has dragged its feet right from the start, through the whole process of creating the Log Train Trail and maintaining it. It hasn’t abided with the agreement with the Ministry of Transportation that restricted its use to Active Transportation. Enforcement of this requirement has been negligible. Have any of the complaints been resolved by penalty?… Any? Or have they all quietly disappeared? So how can the board reps and staff speak of it as a done deal? “It just has to get by the Ministry of Transport.” We’ll see about that!

I mentioned that the reason there is so much use of the Log Train Trail by ORVs is because pedestrians are reluctant to use it. With this decision,  it is completely unmanaged until a committee is struck,  meets, and makes a strategy for transiting to the plan. So, do what you like folks! There are no restrictions! And they won’t enforce any that do come into play.

It really irked me to be told at the meeting that the City should have no say on the committee to implement the recommendations when they have two seats on the board.  

You know, the irony of all this is that the Management Plan commissioned by the ACRD was funded by the Canada Active Transportation Fund. What is “Active Transportation”? Active transportation is using your own power to get from one place to another. This fund is set up to promote Green Transportation! Just the opposite is the result of the plan!